These Sportsmen Know How to Carve a Pumpkin!
byPassionate about hunting and fishing? Halloween may not seem like a holiday designed for sportsmen but these creative adventurers would disagree. If you have your…
Outdoor
Introducing the ZipAll
byFrom the new REI Co-op Drypoint GTX jacket to the iconic REI Co-op Quarter Dome tent, the co-op has created hundreds of products over the years, seeking that perfect balance between needs and dreams.
But, for the first time ever, we’ve designed a piece of apparel so versatile and customizable it almost defies common sense: the REI Co-op ZipAll.
They’re comfortable and attractive, with a zip-off design that takes them from pants to shorts.
For that matter, why even stop at pants?
To design what is possibly our finest masterpiece yet, we started with the best attributes of the Sahara Pants—the comfortable, breathable fabric and intelligent zipper functionality.
Anything they thought was a limiting factor in their adventures or a must-have, we put it together in the ZipAll.
With more than 30 zippers spanning the entire body and an array of thoughtful details (hello, movable pockets!
That’s not all: “The cape is my favorite feature.
There have been so many times I’ve been snowboarding and going for a big drop, and I thought ‘I left my cape at home,’” Adam said.
The ZipAll has you covered.
The 5 Best Backpacking Accessories of 2018
byTrail cred “It fit 18 cans of beer, some cheese, and a salami on a three-day paddling trip down New Zealand’s Whanganui River,” one editor says.
Nemo Stargaze Recliner Low Our take Does the world need another camp chair?
And setup is easy—simply snap together the frame and hang the mesh chair.” The auto-reclining system is smart; just lean back and find your preferred angle.
“It got treated roughly on a river trip with 20 people and tons of gear to pack and unpack everyday, but suffered no damage.” Buy NEMO Stargaze Recliner Low Now $170; 5 lbs.
Tip: Snap two or more tables together to make one big one.
Trail cred “I didn’t know I wanted one until I used it,” says one tester.
“In the Grand Canyon, we stopped for lunch on a beach along the Colorado River and the table made it easy to keep sand out of our sandwiches.” Buy Cascade Wild Ultralight Backpacking Table Now $10; 2.2 oz.
Closet cred “Instead of laying out my wet gloves in the laundry room, I hang them in one of the mesh bags,” our tester says.
“They dry faster and are already stored when they’re done.” Buy GearStash 1.25 Storage System Now $97 Columbia F.K.T.
Buy Columbia F.K.T.
The 4 Best Sunglasses of 2018
byZEAL Incline Our take The mark of great sunglasses?
(The Incline is also available in dark gray and copper tints, but we didn’t test them.)
Oakley Crossrange Patch PRIZM Ruby Our take All sunglasses block light, but not all of them improve vision.
That’s the benefit of the Prizm lens, which filters out specific wavelengths to enhance contrast.
With the Prizm Ruby lens, Oakley essentially does the same by strategically censoring wavelengths on the color spectrum to create more contrast and boost earthy tones, like browns and greens.
Buy Oakley Crossrange Patch PRIZM Ruby Now $183; 1.2 oz.
These wayfarers feature Smith’s ChromaPop lens tech, which filters out the muddled colors you think you see where blue, green, and red light waves intersect.
(It’s a similar concept to the Oakley Prizm, left, but though our testers praised ChromaPop’s clarity, they thought Prizm offered better contrast.)
“These shades didn’t have any scuffs on them after a few rocky tumbles on my snowboard.” Buy Smith Lowdown 2 Now $169; 1.1 oz.
Glasses with 21 to 40 VLT are good all-around workhorses.
INDUSTRY NEWS | OUTDOOR
4 Women Who Broke Barriers
byClare Marie Hodges In 1918, Clare paved the way for future generations when she was hired as the first female ranger for the National Park Service, serving at Yosemite National Park.
She first visited Yosemite at 14, riding four days on horseback to reach the valley.
She couldn’t stay away, returning to teach at the Yosemite Valley School in 1916.
She spent the summer as a mounted ranger, patrolling the valley and remote areas of Yosemite.
She hiked the AT again in 1957 and for a third time, in sections, in 1964, becoming the first person to hike it three times.
In 1959, she walked from Independence, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon—2,000 miles in 95 days.
When she started college (later becoming the first woman to graduate from the University of Alaska), she met a scientist named Olaus Murie.
Olaus died in 1963 and Mardy took over his conservation work.
She testified before Congress, which pushed President Carter to sign the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act into law—preserving 157,000,000 acres of land and tripling the size of the wilderness system at the time.
Fish and Wildlife Service – NCTC Archives/Museum Dr. Carolyn Finney Dr. Carolyn Finney, our modern-day historical figure, is changing minds, educating the country and serving on nonprofit boards.
Wear Raingear Like a Pro
byDon’t wear a cotton tank under a wool midlayer, for example, or vice-versa: wool wicks moisture away from your skin, and cotton doesn’t.
Half-zips are key.
Unless you’re hiking in horizontal rain, keeping your pits unzipped isn’t likely to expose you to too much, if any, water.
Don’t use these vents sparingly.
Better to start off a bit cold and motivate yourself to get moving than to have to stop five minutes into your hike to expose yourself – and the inside of your pack — to the rain.
Make sure you choose a rain shell that breathes as well as it keeps you dry, like Marmot’s EVODry Eclipse jacket.
Bonus: its fabric comes with enough stretch that you’ll feel like you’re just wearing another light layer rather than a rain shell you want to jettison as soon as possible.
Find a lightweight pair that’s waterproof, has decent water resistance, or is at least made of a fabric that insulates while wet.
Bring a drybag for wet layers.
Tuck layers into your rain pants or tighten the hem of your rain jacket to make sure the rain can’t reach them.
REI Drypoint Jacket
byIntroducing the next generation of GORE-TEX® technology As the saying goes “there’s no bad weather, just bad clothing.” Quality gear can make or break an outdoor adventure and if you’re anything like me, you’ve probably figured this out the hard way.
By harnessing the strength of the most breathable and waterproof three-layer fabric by GORE® to date, the Drypoint GTX® jacket is bringing lightweight durability to a whole new level.
An extension of the co-op’s lighter-weight Flash series, the REI design team created the Drypoint GTX® jacket with a focus on simplicity, so you can move faster on the trail.
Rather than using pit zippers, pockets stand double duty as mesh-lined core vents.
The features in the collection are thoughtful but specific, the lines minimal and purposeful.
The lightweight, soft and incredible breathability of the Active shell technology can be attributed to the addition of the CKnit backer.
REI members from trail runners to dog walkers will benefit from the performance and comfort characteristics of GORE-TEX® Active shell,” said Andy Lovell, fabrics sales at GORE®.
The Drypoint GTX® jacket was inspired by moving on the trail and executed with the help of REI Co-op experts and members—all part of the REI Cooperative Design philosophy.
When asked about the impact co-op members had in the design process, Britt explained: “The Drypoint jackets were informed by delving into our members’ closets and going through their well-loved gear on the floor of their living rooms, and on backpacking trips in all four seasons.
Our members are arguably the design team’s single best resource.” The Drypoint GTX® jacket is part of a new series of REI Co-op brand jackets and pants that utilize the next generation of GORE-TEX® technology.
Drinking Beer in an Emergency?
byWelcome to Ask an Outdoorsman.
Every week, Wes will answer your questions about survival, outdoor skills, and life in the woods.
Ask it on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.
If you have no water, but have some other fluid, like coffee or beer, is it better to drink those or nothing?
Their only source of hydration?
Conventional wisdom has it that drinks containing alcohol and caffeine are diuretics: by making you have to pee, you lose more water than you’re consuming.
If that’s true, then drinking beer or coffee in a survival scenario would be a bad idea, as it would only lead to worse dehydration.
72 test subjects in a state of normal hydration were asked to consume one liter of either water, milk, coffee, 4-percent beer, tea, orange juice, Coca-Cola, Powerade, or an oral hydration solution over the span of 30 minutes.
So should you drink beer or coffee if you don’t have any water?
That couple I found in Death Valley should have had, at minimum, a couple of gallons of water in their car.
Hunting and Fishing Icons at Risk
byBadly planned and fast-tracked energy development in places like Wyoming’s Red Desert, or the sprawl of housing, fences, and roads around northern plains communities and cities, could spell the end of the great pronghorn recovery.
The nation’s largest migratory pronghorn herd, 50,000 strong, roams here along with the nation’s only true desert elk herd.
See this place while you can.
The Greater Sage Grouse The greater sage grouse was once an iconic feature of the western sagebrush steppes.
There are still opportunities to hunt these birds, but if their numbers continue to fall, of course, and if the sage grouse becomes federally protected as an endangered species, hunting them will end.
The fact that we have just come to understand that the sage grouse is our big wild canary-in-the-coal-mine of the same American landscape that supports sustainable livestock grazing and some of the best publicly accessible big-game hunting left on the planet.
This is not about whether or not you support mining; the Pebble Project is simply in the wrong place, and no one—not even its former CEO—will say that the operation poses no risk to the fisheries here.
There will be no way to keep our hunting and fishing—our American icons of wilderness and wildlife—if we are not willing to fight for them.
We will be told that we cannot have jobs and energy development if we protect the migration routes of pronghorns, the winter ranges of mule deer, or the dancing grounds of sage grouse.
Take your power from the American landscape and all it holds, and then use that power to make sure it all goes on.
Pet Projects
byTalk about “Bringing the Wild Inside” with Rita’s column on “Going to the Dogs,” where she details 2 projects for your 4-legged friends.
Our canine companions are not exactly WILD, but sometimes while living inside the house with us, it can sure seem like they are not so domesticated!
In this post, we are going to explore a couple of ways to make dogs and their trappings more attractive in your home — along with a couple of DIY projects, such as an attractive dog bed and a hidden bin for toys, treats and mats.
Project #1 is a wine barrel bed made by my Boykin Spaniel friend Mark Reilly.
Or use for Project #2 below.
I also have a Labrador holder stationed by the back door; so, either way, we have leashes at the ready!
They guard several volumes of books on “dogs in art through the ages.” Project #2 is a storage bin made out of the other half of the wine barrel to hold mats, treats and toys.
Mine is actually an antique hand-painted barrel that belonged to my great grandfather and used as a toy bin for my mother when she was a child.
I put mine on rollers and it slips under the coffee table for easy access when the dogs come inside.
Heritage Game Mounts has started a new custom line of sporting dog portraits painted on a mounting board for stag and elk – wouldn’t you like to see your canine friend immortalized?